Militant Islamic herdsmen attacked the Yelewata village in Nigeria a second time Aug. 11, killing three people and injuring others as the community was still reeling from the same group’s attack in June that left 200 people slaughtered.
According to Christian persecution watchdog Open Doors, the villagers were farming when the herdsmen attacked. Three locals were killed, and at least three injured, but several villagers escaped unharmed.
Yelewata is a majority-Christian village of subsistence farmers, and the Fulani herdsmen are a nomadic people who practice Islam.
Open Doors added that a group of mostly women from Yelewata blocked a main road in protest after the attack, demanding that the government stop allowing the herdsmen to invade their land.
“Open Doors condemns in the strongest terms possible the attacks in Benue State,” said Open Doors spokesperson Jo Newhouse. “For this pattern of attack on mostly Christian villages to continue without restraint is totally unacceptable. Christians in the Middle Belt of Nigeria need to know their government is willing to do what is needed to secure their safety of all her citizens, regardless of their ethnicity or religion.”
As CatholicVote previously reported, the village was devastated on June 13 when Fulani herdsmen attacked and slaughtered 200 people. The village had accepted thousands of displaced Christians from neighboring villages, who were escaping the attacks of terrorists.
After attempting to attack the village church, which was sheltering 700 Christians, the herdsmen set fire to the temporary shelters housing Christians in the village’s market square and brandished machetes.
“There is no question about who carried out the attack,” said Yelewata parish priest Father Ukama Jonathan Angbianbee. “They were definitely Fulanis. They were shouting ‘Alahu Akhbar’ [God is great].”
Pope Leo responded to the brutal attack in his June 15 Angelus address, stating, “I pray that security, justice, and peace prevail in Nigeria, a beloved country that has suffered various forms of violence. I pray in particular for the rural Christian communities in the state of Benue, who have unceasingly been victims of violence.”